A Shower

The pleasant rain! — the pleasant rain!
By fits it plashing falls
On twangling leaf and dimpling pool —
How sweet its warning calls!
They know it — all the bosomy vales,
High slopes, and verdant meads;
The queenly elms and princely oaks
Bow down their grateful heads.
The withering grass, and fading flowers,
And drooping shrubs look gay;
The bubbly brook, with gladlier song,
Hies on its endless way!
All things of earth, all grateful things!
Put on their robes of cheer;
They hear the sound of the warning burst,
And know the rain is near.
It comes! it comes! the pleasant rain!
I drink its cooler breath;
It is rich with sighs of fainting flowers,
And roses' fragrant death;
It hath kiss'd the tomb of the lilly pale,
The beds where violets die,
And it bears its life on its living wings —
I feel it wandering by.
And yet it comes! the lightning's flash
Hath torn the lowering cloud;
With a distant roar, and a nearer crash,
Out bursts the thunder loud;
It comes with the rush of a god's descent
On the hush'd and trembling earth,
To visit the shrines of the hallow'd groves
Where a poet's soul had birth.
With a rush as of a thousand steeds,
Is the mighty god's descent;
Beneath the weight of his passing tread,
The conscious groves are bent.
His heavy tread — it is lighter now —
And yet it passeth on;
And now it is up, with a sudden lift —
The pleasant rain hath gone.
The pleasant rain! — the pleasant rain!
It hath passed above the earth,
I see the smile of the opening cloud,
Like the parted lips of mirth.
The golden joy is spreading wide
Along the blushing west,
And the happy earth gives back her smiles,
Like the glow of a grateful breast.
As a blessing sinks in a grateful heart,
That knoweth all its need,
So came the good of the pleasant rain,
O'er hill and verdant mead.
It shall breathe this truth on the human ear,
In hall and cotter's home,
That to bring the gift of a bounteous Heaven,
The pleasant rain hath come.